5 A Day

Jamie tagged me for this meme called "five-a-day". It was started to encourage keeping mentally healthy.

Here are my top five things to do every day (or every week) to stay mentally healthy:

• Blogging/ Journaling- Some people would put these as separate things, but for me they do the same. They allow me to release my thoughts and just write about whatever I want or need to write about. I find this really helpful when I am stressed or worrying. Lately I have felt that there aren't many people I can actually talk to about things, so blogging is important to me.
• Indulging- I allow myself to eat a few unhealthy things a day during the school week. On the weekends I give myself more room to interpret what is 'healthy'. If I am constantly worrying about my food I can't get other things done. If I didn't try to control it though, I would pig out on junk food all the time like I did as a kid. I think of this as a happy medium for myself.
• Listening to music/reading/watching TV- These are necessary! They let me relax and lose myself for a while. I can't imagine what I would be like if I didn't get to relax for even just a little while. I'd be a mess.
• Cooking- I love cooking. At least once a week I like to be able to make a real meal. It makes me feel... I don't know how to describe it. Accomplished? Looking at a meal I have just put together makes me feel wonderful.
• Making a mental list- I don't know if this is exactly good for me, but I always like to have a mental checklist of the things I need/want to do. If it gets overloaded, an alarm goes off and I start to feel like I did just a little while ago. That is when I need to take another look at the list and remind myself that it's all doable, and I'll be okay. If I didn't have this mental list I know I would be lost.

5 people I would like to tag for this-

1. Mrs. B.
2. Suzie
3. Robyn
4. Genie
5. I am leaving this 5th spot open for whoever wishes to do this. I found it helpful to step back and look at what I actually do to help myself. I realized that I do most of those 5 things without even thinking about why.